I'm looking at doing a bunch of alpine routes that have only short pitches of technical terrain (think a few short 5.4-5.7/8 pitches and a lot of 3rd/4th class) or that require rappels. I would rope up for these short pitches, which brings me to my question: what to do for a rope?

I obviously would like to keep weight down to a minimum. So far I was thinking of using a single 60m half rope and have the leader tie into both ends and the second follow on an eight tied into the middle of the rope. this would limit me to 30m pitches, but would be light and allow normal (30m) rappels. What do you think? Is there a better, less convoluted, system?

Thanks in advanced
Matt

If the grades you speak of are well within your ability, I would say lead on a single 30m half rope. Half ropes catch falls by themselves. Thats what they're intended to do. The second is redundant in case of sharp edges and allows full length raps.

If you need to rap 30m, than your system is just fine, but Id go ahead and cut the rope in half. That way your second can tie in directly and the two of you can share the load on the approach.

Brooks advice doesn't really make sense to me, lead on a half rope by itself...AND cut it in half? He is right that half ropes are rated to take falls by themselves (2 UIAA falls I think). But if the pitches are short why not up the safety factor and fold the rope in half like you suggested.

I have used an 8.8 half rope doubled, like you were inquiring about. A friend and I used that idea to simul the Grand Teton, I thought it worked really well.

I would go with that idea, besides, what are you going to do with two 30m half ropes?

I've used a bunch of different options. BW sells 30m Ice Floss. It's good if you don't have raps. I use it mostly for snow mountaineering kinds of things. I've also doubled a 7mm static as you suggest. It's extremely light and small. The theory here is that the terrain is usually such that most of the fall force is going to be absorbed by your body hitting the rocks rather than through the rope and gear. From there I work up - the more 5th class, the thicker the rope and the more gear I bring. Just depends.

Another key is to learn how to shorten your rope via a "kiwi coil" or "swiss coil" or whatever name the latest books give it. You coil a bunch of rope over your shoulders then tie it off at your belay biner. It avoids a lot of rope drag and keeps you close to your partner. In turn, you move faster when simul climbing. The more gear you need to place, the more distance you put between you. When you get to a tougher section, you can "pitch it out" by just dropping your coils and feeding out a full length of rope. This also keeps the safety system active throughout the climb, rather than stuffed away in your pack.